Apple Rejects Sony Reader App

Apple Rejects Sony Reader App Over In-App Purchases. Kindle Next?

Apple has rejected the Sony Reader iPhone app from the App Store, telling Sony that it “can no longer sell content, like e-books, within their apps, or let customers have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store.” In the report, from the New York Times, Sony’s digital reading boss Steve Haber says that all future in-app purchases will have to be made in-app, and go through Apple.
For new apps this is no big deal, but there is one big exception to this rule currently trading freely outside its iOS apps: Amazon’s Kindle. Kindle books can only be bought from the Amazon site (or from actual Kindle hardware), but they are then sent over-the-air to iPads and iPhones.
Should Apple enforce its ban on outside purchases, the Kindle app would become useless. Amazon would be very unlikely to sell books through in-app purchases, as this would send 30% of the cover-price direct to Apple.
The NYT article is a little vague on the “let customers have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store” part of the story, though. This could simply be a ban on in-app browsers being used to circumvent in-app purchases. If so, this would exempt the Kindle app, which currently redirects you to the Amazon site in the Safari browser to make a purchase.
There is more speculation that Apple will require a new iOS subscription service – expected to be unveiled alongside Rupert Murdoch’s The Daily iPad newspaper tomorrow – will be mandatory for any apps selling recurring content.
Up until now, Apple has been very open, allowing “rival” software like the Kindle app onto its devices. The common thinking was that, in making the iPad work with any content, the hardware would become more compelling. Why buy another device when you can read books from Kindle, Nook, Kobo and others, alongside Apple’s iBooks?
This latest twist may signal the end of that thinking. More likely, it will turn out to be a misunderstanding exploited for publicity by Sony. After all, if the Kindle app was dumped from the App Store, it would seriously piss off millions of iPhone and iPad owners who use it every day. Apple isn’t likely to do that. Is it?